Vikings quarterback Christian Ponder, who was forced to miss the team’s playoff loss to the Packers last season in Green Bay because of a deeply bruised throwing triceps, was throwing well and with plenty of velocity in team drills last week at Winter Park.

“It feels good; there are no aftereffects,” Ponder said of his arm.

Twins first baseman Justin Morneau, who has just two home runs this season, put in an extensive workout last week hitting the ball off a tee under the direction of batting coach Tom Brunansky. The purpose of the drill?

“Seeing the ball off the bat,” Morneau said. “Watching the backspin gives you a pretty good idea of what the ball’s doing, what the flight of the ball is, whether it’s hooking or slicing or whether it has true backspin.

“The goal is true backspin because those are the ones that carry for home runs.”

The Vikings’ Leslie Frazier and possibly the Steelers’ Mike Tomlin — opposing coaches for a Sept. 29 regular-season game in London — will spend a weekend with NFL analyst Tony Dungy and other coaches at Lake Mille Lacs in three weeks during a retreat that includes competitive fishing.

Don’t be surprised if it’s announced next week that LPGA hall of famers Annika Sorenstam and Nancy Lopez, for a first time on the Champions Tour, compete in a legends event at the 3M Championship in August at the TPC in Blaine. Another hall of famer, TV golf analyst Johnny Miller, also is expected to participate.

The Vikings’ Erin Henderson on why he’s comfortable moving from weak-side linebacker to middle linebacker: “I know what it’s like when the Dome’s getting jumping on third down and how loud it can be and what you have to do to make sure that everybody is where they’re supposed to be.”

Henderson will gets lots of attention to see whether he can handle the new position.

“I felt like people were always watching me, whether they were or not,” he said. “Will there be a little more scrutiny? Of course.”

Gophers-bound Louie Nanne, a Wild draft pick and “A” student who accelerated his senior school year at Edina High and starred for the Penticton Vees in the British Columbia Hockey League, is back to participate in graduation ceremonies next week.

Vikings wide receivers coach George Stewart said his corps is benefiting from having transformed QB Joe Webb in meetings.

“Because he tells us the quarterback reads, what the quarterback sees, and that’s big for our receivers,” Stewart said.

Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, who has chatted with oft-injured star Kevin Love, said, “He’s working very hard on his physical things, and mentally he’s very upbeat.”

Plans are for the Howard Pulley pro-am summer basketball league, which features new and returning Gophers players, to begin June 29 at the High Performance Academy in Eagan. Except for a couple of Saturdays, the league will have two games a day beginning at 7 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.

Timberwolves president of basketball operations Flip Saunders, a former Gophers point guard, on point guard Ricky Rubio: “Ricky has leadership ability. Point guards are not made — they’re delivered from heaven.”

Wild general manager Chuck Fletcher has been in Toronto interviewing draft prospects.

Kyle Gibson, 25, should be ready one of these months for his major league debut, but Twins GM Terry Ryan remains conservative on the right-handed starter who is 4-5 with a 2.82 earned-run average at Triple-A Rochester.

“He’s been good and he’s been bad, and he’s been good and he’s been bad. He’s been good, bad, good, then good,” Ryan said.

Gibson was bad in his most recent start. So what if Gibson is good again in his next start?

“Not unless he’s ready,” Ryan said. “The worst thing you can do for the kid is bring him up here, and he has a tough outing, and the fan base would sour on him so quick. I don’t want that to happen.

“So when we bring him up, you’re hoping that he’s ready and that he can contribute for the better part of this season instead of bringing him up just so we can showcase a guy who we have high hopes for.”

Ryan, a former minor league pitcher, when asked why Samuel Deduno‘s fastball moves as much as it does, said: “He’s got a good, loose wrist, I can tell you that. He’s got some kind of stuff. If he can just ever corral it.”

Ex-Viking Percy Harvin, making the sports memorabilia circuit now that he’s with the Seattle Seahawks, was to appear in Mill Creek, Wash., on Saturday to sign footballs at $89 each.

Local financial adviser and former Notre Dame football player Leo Collins was in South Bend, Ind., for his alma mater’s spring game and retired coach Ara Parseghian‘s 90th birthday.

“The last thing Ara said was, ‘I want to make sure each and every one of you promise to be back here in 10 years when I celebrate my 100th,’ ” Collins said.

Basketball hall of famer and former Minneapolis Lakers and Gophers coach Johnny Kundla turns 97 on July 3.

Bert Blyleven’s son Todd, a former minor league pitcher and major league scout, is the new product marketing manager for Shock Doctor Sports, a mouthguard firm based in Minnetonka.

Lakeville North’s J.P. Macura, who is at Butler’s summer camp this weekend, was to attend Saturday’s Miami Heat-Indiana Pacers game in Indianapolis. The 6-foot-4 shooting guard reportedly has offers from Butler, Kansas State and Boston College.

Gophers volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon’s first recruiting class, which includes 6-1 Kalei Mau from Hawaii, is No. 3 in the nation, behind only Nebraska and Southern California, according to PrepVolleyball.com.

That was 6-3, 225-pound senior Adam Westling of Heritage Christian Academy blasting a 390-yard drive to reach the 18th green at Victory Links, finishing birdie-birdie-birdie to make the cut for the June 11 Minnesota Class A high school golf tournament to be held at Pebble Creek.

Local author Rick Shefchik will teach a one-day class, “From Fields to Fairways: Classic Golf Clubs of Minnesota,” on July 16 through the University of Minnesota’s College of Continuing Education. The class includes a bus trip to assorted historical courses. For more information, cceinfo@umn.edu.

DON’T PRINT THAT

Because Derrick Williams will have to play behind either Kevin Love or Andrei Kirilenko next season, he’s expected to be the Timberwolves’ main chip in trade talks this month.

Williams turned 22 on May 25. It wouldn’t be surprising if the Wolves packaged the 6-8, 240-pounder with their No. 9 overall pick in the NBA draft to move up to take shooting guard Victor Oladipo from Indiana.

Kirilenko, by the way, has not given the Wolves any indication that he plans to use an escape clause in his contract.

Wolves owner Glen Taylor has bought out six of his 12 limited partners, who received a nice return on their investments.

The Twins have several young prospects in the minor leagues considered among the best in baseball. Byron Buxton, 19, and Miguel Sano, 20, for example.

General manager Terry Ryan won’t project when fans can expect to see them in the major leagues, though.

“Eventually, I think they both have a chance,” Ryan said.

How soon, though?

“They’ll dictate that,” Ryan said. “There’s no sense in putting a time frame on a kid like that. I don’t think it’s healthy in any shape or form.”

Ryan was asked if he would like to see Buxton and Sano — both excelling at Class A — play at another level this season.

“If they’re ready for it,” he said.

That would seem before long. Through 51 games at Cedar Rapids in the Midwest League, Buxton, an outfielder, has 54 runs scored, 11 doubles, five triples, seven home runs and 39 runs batted in. He is batting .337.

Through 50 games at accelerated Fort Myers in the Florida State League, Sano, a third baseman, has 44 runs scored, 14 doubles, two triples, 13 homers and 41 RBIs. He is batting .339.

Two NBA teams have inquired about ex-Wolves assistant Eric Musselman as an assistant, but after Arizona State gave him a new title and nice pay raise, he said no thanks.

The Twins are bringing Tampa, Fla., high school shortstop Tucker Neuhaus, son of former Bethel University baseball coach Ken Neuhaus, to Target Field for a predraft workout Monday.

The Big Ten Network is working on features on former Gophers Dave Winfield and Brock Lesnar.

The Gophers rank 70th of 125 major college football teams, according to Lindy’s sports magazine, which points out that two of Minnesota’s victories last season — Purdue and Illinois — are off the 2013 schedule. On the schedule is San Jose State, which finished 11-2 last season and is ranked No. 42 by Lindy’s.

Tom Cross was head football coach at Concordia-St. Paul and hired Curtis “Boo Boo” Rouse as an assistant after the popular offensive lineman had been released by the Vikings. Cross said Rouse, who died at age 52 last month, was a “fabulous” person.

“Boo Boo lived in Burnsville, and one day he’s driving on Highway 35 to Concordia and he’s going to be late for practice,” Cross recalled. “So he’s speeding like crazy up (Interstate) 35. He gets pulled over by a highway patrol cop, who comes up to him and says, ‘You’re in a big hurry.’ And Boo Boo says, ‘Yeah, I’m coaching at Concordia-St. Paul.’

Legendary St. John’sfootball coachJohn Gagliardi, who keeps getting lifetime achievement awards even though he’s retired, asked what he does with all the hardware: “I think my wife stores it. I’ll let the heirs take care of it.”

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